Water storage capacity of Hirakud decreased by 1.82 million acre-feet: CM Majhi

SAMBALPUR: The total water storage capacity of Hirakud reservoir has declined by 1.82 million acre-feet over the years with heavy silt deposition emerging as a major concern in the multipurpose reservoir, said Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Thursday.

Responding to a question by Rengali MLA Sudarshan Haripal in the state Assembly in Bhubaneswar, Majhi, who also holds the Water Resources portfolio, said in a written reply that compared with the original project parameters, the reservoir has consequently lost 1.01 million acre-feet of dead storage capacity and 0.81 million acre-feet of live storagecapacity, resulting in an overall reduction of 1.82 million acre-feet.

According to the original project report of 1957, Hirakud reservoir had a total storage capacity of 6.60 million acre-feet comprising 1.88 million acre-feet of dead storage and 4.72 million acre-feet of live storage.in the reservoir, progressively reducing its water-holding capacity.

Haripal also sought information on the government’s plans to remove the accumulated silt from the reservoir, but the CM’s response didn’t provide details of any such plan.

In another question, Haripal sought to know whether the state government had prepared a digital database of people displaced by the Hirakud project. The chief minister replied that no such digital database had been prepared.

However, the chief minister’s reply cited an assessment carried out in 2000, which put the reservoir’s dead storage capacity at 0.87 million acre-feet and live storage capacity at 3.91 million acre-feet, taking the total storage capacity to 4.78 million acre-feet. The decline has been attributed to accumulation of large quantities of silt in the reservoir, progressively